Stumbling Upon StumbleUpon in Your Job Search

If you’ve spent much time in the blogging realm (or are just an information junkie), you’ve more than likely stumbled upon StumbleUpon. But outside of that virtual haze, it might not be as familiar. And, honestly, its usefulness to a job seeker is somewhat unchartered territory. But we like to hang out in unchartered waters around here, so we thought we would examine how StumbleUpon could help you in your job search. As the amount of return on investment in social media (for everybody) is still up for debate, it is our goal to examine the many different options that are out there and figure out what can (and cannot) work for the job seeker.

What StumbleUpon Is and Isn’t

StumbleUpon’s main goal is to recommend web content to its users based on their likes and dislikes, allowing them to “discover” sites that they might not otherwise. Users can follow one another and share content with each other. The more likes your submitted content receives, the more traffic that will bring to a website.

Bloggers and website marketers abound in this arena, and there are various strategies at play here. Some say you should never stumble your own content and basically wait until your followers become generous and stumble it for you (or you can share it with them privately and hope they stumble it on your behalf). Others say you can stumble your content, but you should stumble 10-15 other pages for every 1 of yours. The idea is that you could see a significant peak in web traffic thanks to the generosity of your following who push your content into prominence around StumbleUpon.

So What Does That Mean for the Job Seeker?

Basically, for job seekers who are using a website or blog to promote their “expertise,” it can be beneficial as a way to drive traffic to your site. I would not advise actively advertising that you are a job seeker on the site, as I don’t think it would get you anywhere, and I would make sure that you are building a following around the subject matter your content is about. (StumbleUpon has a pretty large Technology category where you can find many like-minded techies.)

You are not likely to come across hiring managers on StumbleUpon, although you might stumble across some sites with job postings that you might not have otherwise found. So it is definitely not the place for more traditional job search methods. But you can comment on other people’s content, and as I mentioned, build up a network of fellow stumblers.

All in all, I wouldn’t spend hours on StumbleUpon as a job seeker, but I don’t think it is a complete waste of time either. If you have quality content to share, such as through a blog, StumbleUpon is known for being generous with traffic. In that context, it is worth a try.

The ITtechExec Way

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